Blue Dragon

This is a regular commission, ordered via Patreon, at the watercolour postcard level. I have been drawing a lot of dragons lately, and in the course of design for a sleeping dragon oil painting, I sketched this little darling. Dragons tend to be horse-faced or lizard-faced. There are a few other skull options, and skull-less dragons are nightmare fuel, but mostly, it’s horses and lizards.

I’m a lizard person – scales and wedge shaped heads and thin necks – but from time to time I’ll draw differently. This is as much a flying horse as a horse-shaped dragon. It’s ultramarine and ochre, as far as I recall – the yellow could just be something else. After I painted it, I went over the lines in ink for clarity. The effect of the watercolour was to make the nib drag, so the lines widened. There was also a surface that was conducive to capillary flow – the watercolour gum dragged the ink out of the nib. However, I kept it light and as quick as I could, and the effect is good. I definitely prefer the ink first method for ease, but the colours can lie over the black, in that order.

The dragon-horse comes in at around £15 ($25) a month, and postage is free no matter where you are, if you’re interested in supporting me on a longterm basis. Patreon is a website that handles the money for me, so I don’t have to: